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What’s concerning as always – as it was with his lacking team in his 2007 Finals loss, his bewildered team in his 2011 Finals loss, his too top-heavy team in his 2014 Finals loss, and his injured team in his 2015 Finals loss – is the support around him. These aren’t digs at James. An individual can mean the world in this league, but this remains a team sport.
This is a team sport run by individuals that, on the top end at least, are massively underpaid in terms relative to not only what revenues they supply for a franchise, but how much of a difference they make to a lineup that only suits five to a side. The Cleveland Cavaliers had the NBA’s highest payroll at over $103 million in 2015-16 and they’ll take in a gleaming gold trophy for their efforts on that front. Still, even with LeBron James making as much as he possibly could this season – $22.7 million – his bottom line is still undervalued.
This is why James signed just a two-year contract with the Cavaliers with a player opt-out for his second season back in 2014, and followed up with the same move last summer. It’s why he will likely do the same this offseason, despite all the genuine tears and ambition to bring northern Ohio its first major sports championship in decades. James is rightfully going after as much money as he can get, manipulating the NBA salary structure that is put in place to ensure that the league has some semblance of a “middle class” retinue of players.
And, for one year, James can get away with it without creating the largest NBA payroll and luxury tax windfall we’ve ever seen.
Unless James wants to watch a whole lotta things burn yet again, he’ll re-sign with the Cavaliers for over $30 million for 2016-17. This will push Cleveland over the expected $94 million salary cap, but due to the pre-bump in-place contracts of both Kyrie Irving ($17.5 million next season) and Kevin Love ($21.1 million), the bottom line won’t be skewed too terribly. By the end of 2016-17 the Cavs’ ownership group will likely have taken in three years’ worth of sellout gate receipts alongside, we’re presuming, yet another deep dive into June. Don’t cry for these fake tans.
The issue here is spreading the wealth, and supporting the middle class without deceiving those with aspirations to join such a strata. The Cleveland Cavaliers franchise has long had issues with as much.
Should James return, just six Cavs will be under contract for 2016-17. The team will be pressed to fill out its roster with both minimum hires and the application of the mid-level exception (should it stay within the good graces of the luxury tax, which it did not in 2015-16) while replacing or retaining needed rotation parts.
The re-signing of center Timofey Mozgov, thought to be a no-brainer (and tax-killer) last fall, is hardly a fait accompli. Two different Cavalier head coaches gave up on Mozgov in the wake of his slow rehabilitation from knee surgery; and it probably wasn’t the best look for the center (criticized for his weight for the bulk of 2015-16) to be pictured glomming onto both a burrito and brownie in the wake of Cleveland’s championship on Sunday night.
Mo Williams might not be in the team’s plans. Matthew Dellavedova is probably done. Despite each players’ disappointing play, Cleveland will need their services replaced – a hybrid scoring guard to turn a game into the blowout with a three-pointer during a second quarter run, and a capable reserve at point.
Should Smith return this is still a thin roster even with trade deadline acquisition Channing Frye around for a full season at $7.8 million and with Iman Shumpert (hopefully) returning to form at $10.3 million next season. We still need to build a rotation here, though.
So what breaks it up? Who’s the “asset,” to use those cruel words we can’t stop going to in this business? Who was the guy left not so much redundant, but possibly in need of a happier home?
(That also makes a ton of money that could be broken up into use for salaries for a series of as-yet-unnamed players?)
It’s Kevin Love, NBA champion and perpetual media punching bag. He’s the guy that was knocked out of the starting lineup due to a concussion prior to Cleveland’s Game 3 win, and left out of the lineup due to “we think we might be better off without you” prior to Game 4. The man simply could match up against these Warriors.
And that’s OK. NBA playoff and sometimes championship history is littered with good-to-great-to-legendary players that just didn’t quite work out against certain playoff opponents. For as frustrated as Love may have looked at times during the NBA Finals, that same pained reaction could just as easily have been on the face of Serge Ibaka, LaMarcus Aldridge or, perish the thought, Tim Duncan as they chased Love around the court in a Finals matchup this month. Enes Kanter would have retired after Game 2, had Oklahoma City made the Finals.
That doesn’t mean Cleveland won’t listen to trade offers, or that Love should feel put off when they do. Just as long as Cavs general manager David Griffin handles things tactfully, and just as long as LeBron’s cadre of hanger-ons don’t take the wrong end of the stick and beat around the bush with it to the press.
The issue here is the return. LeBron James will mark his 32nd birthday in December, and be celebrated as the oldest 32-year old in NBA history. Draft picks from the Celtics or future considerations from the Nets or even a young scoring big man in, say, Julius Randle might not be timely enough for a guy in LeBron that just went to war with Richard Jefferson.
The trick is finding that next version, that far younger version, of Richard Jefferson. The Cavs can’t deal Love for 2015-16 Jefferson or 2012-13 Shane Battier. Not at Love’s price. They need an even greener player along those lines and, last we checked, San Antonio isn’t stepping in to deal Kawhi Leonard.
This is a team with a thin rotation, one that relies on a desperate J.R. Smith, an undersized Tristan Thompson, and a player in Love who was (rightfully or not) basically laughed out of the NBA Finals prior to being lauded for his stellar play in Game 7 on a night when he missed six of nine shots. Mo Williams, out of the rotation midseason, had to step onto the court during the Finals not merely to contribute, but basically just to waste time in light of Matthew Dellavedova’s struggles. This team, led by the oldest (near) 32-year old in NBA history, does not look like a sure return champion in its current, pre-July, state.
So what? Who’s stepping up? Toronto? The Hawks? Boston and all those draft picks that have yet to grow a name? Andre Drummond’s Pistons? The Miami Heat are going to get Kevin Durant? Chicago and Washington are going to get their acts together? The Pacers are going to have their revenge? Come on.
The East isn’t as bad as it was 10 or 15 years ago, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t top-heavy as we head into 2016-17. The Cavaliers – just as it was for LeBron’s Miami Heat squads and the Spurs teams they battled – just need to mind the store until spring comes. The NBA won’t like recognizing that, not with A BIG IMPORTANT GAME ON THURSDAY NIGHT between the Cavaliers and Hornets to sell, but that’s where this veteran team is at.
As it was for that Heat franchise, the task now will be to find help on the cheap that won’t let anyone down come the second week in June. LeBron James shouldn’t have to retire with a sub-.500 record in the NBA Finals, and now that he’s brought a title to Cleveland, his co-workers need to find a way to sustain a support system for the King.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops